Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver

Name:Gohil Hetalba C

Paper: 2  The Neo-Classical Age

M.A 2  Sem 1

Roll: 5

Topic: "Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver"

  

Submitted To,

Dr Dilip Barad

Dept of English

Mk Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver

In Lilliput

          Gulliver's possesses moral superiority to the petty and tiny Lilliputians, who show themselves to be a petty, cruel, vengeful, and self-serving race. Morally and politically, Gulliver is their superior.

In Brobdingnag

          In Brobdingnag (Book II), Gulliver is still an ordinary moral man, but the Brobdingnagians are moral giant men. Certainly they are not perfect, but their moral superiority is as great to Gulliver as is their physical size. In his loyalty to England, we see that Gulliver is, indeed, a very proud man and one who accepts the madness and malice of British politics and society as the natural and normal standard. For the first time, we see Gulliver as the hypocrite — he lies to the Brobdingnagian king in order to conceal what is despicable about his native England.

In Houyhnhnms

          In Book IV, Gulliver represents the middle ground between pure reason (as embodied by the Houyhnhnms) and pure animalism (as embodied by the depraved Yahoos), yet Gulliver's pride refuses to allow him to recognize the Yahoo aspects in himself. Therefore, he identifies himself with the Houyhnhnms and, in fact, tries to become one. But the horses are alien to Gulliver; yet Gulliver thinks of the Yahoos as alien and animal. Separating himself from his naturally depraved cousins, the Yahoos, Gulliver also separates himself from the European Yahoos. He is near to madness — because of pride. Gulliver has "reasoned" himself into rejecting his species and his nature: Gulliver is virtually a madman.

          This aspiration to become a horse exposes Gulliver's grave weakness. Gullible and proud, he becomes such a devotee of reason that he cannot accept his fellow humans who are less than totally reasonable. He cannot recognize virtue and charity when they exist. Captain Pedro de Mendez rescues Gulliver and takes him back to Europe, but Gulliver despises him because Mendez doesn't look like a horse. Likewise, when he reaches home, Gulliver hates his family because they look and smell like Yahoos. . His attitudes when he arrives in London make him a source of derision, for Gulliver seeks to change his basic nature by thinking; reason becomes the sole guide of his life.He is still capable of seeing objects and surfaces accurately, but he is incapable of grasping true depths of meaning.

Conclusion

          Gulliver, usually quite sane, is misled when we leave him, but he is like most people. Even dullards, occasionally, become obsessed by something or other for a while before lapsing back into their quiet, workaday selves. Eventually, we can imagine that Gulliver will recover and be his former unexciting, gullible self.